Ven. William Way

(Alias MAY, alias
FLOWER).

English priest and martyr, born in
Exeter Diocese (Challoner says in Cornwall, but earlier
authorities say in Devonshire); hanged, bowelled, and quartered at
Kingston-on-Thames, 23 September, 1588. He is frequently confused
with the martyred layman Richard Flower, alias Lloyd, who
suffered at Tyburn, 30 September, 1588 (as to whom see LEIGH,
RICHARD), with the priest William Wiggs, alias Way, M.A., a
notable prisoner at Wisbech, and with William Wyggs, M.A., of New
College, Oxford. Our martyr William Way received the first tonsure
in the Cathedral of Reims from the Cardinal of Guise on 31 March,
1584, and was ordained subdeacon, 22 March, deacon 5 April, and
priest 18 September, 1586, at Laon, probably by Bishop Valentine
Douglas, O.S.B. He set out for England 9 December, 1586, and in
June 1587, had been committed to the Clink. He was indicted at
Newgate in September, 1588, merely for being a priest. He declined
to be tried by a secular judge, whereupon the Bishop of London was
sent for; but the martyr, refusing to acknowledge him as a bishop
or the queen as head of the Church, was immediately condemned. He
was much given to abstinence and austerity. When he was not among
the first of those to be tried at the Sessions in August, he wept
and, fearing he had offended God, went at once to confession, "but
when he himself was sent for, he had so much joy that he seemed
past himself".